A long time ago, a dear old music professor made me memorize the origins of instrumental music in the Renaissance period:
* Dance music
* Technical exercises
* Choral preludes
* Transcribed vocal music
At the time I thought I was just applying that bit of knowledge to the test that he was giving that week. Lo-and-behold... I still remember it to this day, and whats more it's gotten me out of a bind more than once.
So what do you do when you have eight wind players enrolled in band... and you know for a fact that no one has written music for that particular instrumentation?
Simple... you do what Gabrielli did and just re-write some vocal music music for whatever instruments you have, and... Voila! Madrigal-turned-instrumental-octet!
How about when your metronome runs out of batteries and you don't want to use something as invasive as a cowbell to keep time? You do what Lully did and use a long stick to pound out the beat on the ground. *
Ah... Dr. Moorefiled... wherever you are in heaven. I hope you're looking down and smiling. I may have looked like I wasn't paying attention, but apparently, I was.
* The trick is to not follow Lully's example entirely and stab yourself in the foot with your cane. He suffered an injury and later died from gangrene after he refused to have his toe amputated.
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